Share This Story!

Russ Smith forgoes NBA draft, returns to Louisville

LOUISVILLE — University of Louisville guard Russ Smith said Wednesday that he plans to return for his senior season. Smith, listed at 6-0, 165 pounds, led the NCAA champion Cardinals in scoring at 18.7 points

LOUISVILLE — In a sense, Russ Smith has always had to adapt his game just to get in the game.

So Wednesday's announcement that he'll return to the University of Louisville to play his senior year should come as no surprise. Smith will be "back in the lab" focused again on changing, this time into an NBA player as an undersized guard.

Louisville coach Rick Pitino gathered information for Smith about what the pro teams think of him. He put Smith on the phone with Stu Jackson, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, for more input.

The 6-foot, 165-pound Smith led the national champion Cardinals at 18.7 points per game, but there's more to the NBA than just being a scorer. What he learned was that he'd probably be a second-round pick if he entered this year's draft.

"The pros want to see a different Russ," Pitino said. "They want to see 10 more pounds of muscle. They want to see better shot selection, a higher assist-turnover ratio."

The challenge confronting Smith sounds a lot like what he faced between his freshman and sophomore seasons at Louisville. He had been conditioned to believe scoring was the way to get playing time. That didn't work under Pitino, and it didn't help that he was hampered by injuries. He played in just 17 games as a freshman and averaged five minutes in those games.

Louisville fans hold signs for guard Russ Smith while the team warms up on the court for the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game against Michigan in Atlanta.(Photo: Curtis Compton, AP)

At the time many observers thought the safe bet would be that Smith, a New Yorker, would transfer to Manhattan when former Louisville assistant Steve Masiello became the head coach there. Certainly nothing in Smith's past hinted that he could become the leading scorer on a championship team.

"Not a lot of people knew me because I was, what, a half star?" he said of his recruiting ranking in high school. But he believed in himself. So did Russ Sr., who suggested his son get "back in the lab," a reference to his summer workout regimen.

"After that season was over, I didn't go home that summer, I didn't stay at my house, I didn't do all those other things I used to do when I was in high school," Smith said. "I didn't have no distractions. I worked really hard on my offseason. Me and my dad take pride in that."

That summer helped Smith go from an afterthought to a spark plug off the bench as a sophomore, when he averaged 11.5 points and set a school season record with 87 steals.

"Some of you may remember that freshman year, he didn't guard anybody," Pitino said. "Now he's become one of the better defensive players on the ball in the country."

The thought now is that Smith can make tweaks to his game that the NBA personnel crowd will enjoy. He showed flashes of it during the first four games of the NCAA Tournament, when he shot 54 % from the field partly because he was precise with his shot selection. But in the two Final Four games he reverted to his sometimes reckless habits and shot just 9 of 33.

Pitino tried to take some of the blame for those habits Wednesday, saying Smith merely did what the team needed him to do, which was to score.

"Some of his — what would be deemed weaknesses — are because I've asked him to do it," Pitino said. "He had that freedom because I needed him to have that freedom."

Smith won't need so much freedom next season. Junior-college transfer Chris Jones, the most likely candidate to take over at point guard for Peyton Siva, and fellow guards Terry Rozier and Anton Gill are skilled scorers, too.

The Cards will have more players who can put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, which Smith was clearly the best at doing the past two years. That should allow him to be more selective as to when he attacks. And the pro scouts will need to see he can play under control.

"I feel like I can do whatever I put my mind to, especially because I have a great coach right here and he's directing me to do the right things," Smith said. "If I have to make certain plays or tweak something, which I will, then that's the game plan. I'm all for winning."